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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

Today (April 16, 2012) is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 16.

Apollo 16 was the fifth mission to land men on the moon and return them to Earth. It was also the second flight of the Lunar Roving Vehicle.

Apollo 16 landed in a highlands area, a region not yet explored on the moon. Commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charles Duke collected samples, took photographs and conducted experiments that included the first use of an ultraviolet camera/spectrograph on the Moon.

ASE

Congrats to John, TK and Charlie on the 40th anniversary of their launch to the moon! If you'd like to send a message to the crew, we'll make sure they see it!

mach3valkyrie

This mission had the most network TV coverage during the flight since Apollo 11. The crew was even featured on the cover of a TV Guide magazine in April of 1972.

I watched on TV as much as possible, including launch and the moon landing and two of the three EVAs. It was great!

Happy 40th Anniversary!

Norman.King

It was the first lunar mission I properly remember. I was captivated then but what mankind had done....and I still am.

ASE

Thanks for all of the good words for Apollo 16; the crew very much appreciated your thoughts – Charlie left a comment in response.

Headshot

It was overcast in the midwest the weekend that Apollo 16 launched. I was disappointed because during that same weekend the moon was passing only half a degree from Venus and I wanted to get some pictures of the event. Since it was still cloudy, I stayed home and watched the Sunday launch instead.

After TLI the Apollo 16 crew broadcast some TV back to earth, including a shot of North America from the command module. I saw that the cloud mass over the midwest had a sharp western boundry behind which was clear weather and that it was approaching the eastern parts of Illinois and Wisconsin.

So I threw my gear into the car and made the hour plus trip to the observatory in Racine, Wisconsin. I arrived just as the skies cleared and got some nice pictures before the pair of celestial objects set in the west. One of the pictures I took that night got published in the July 1972 issue of Sky and Telescope.

I know damn well that this would have never occurred if the crew of Apollo 16 had not made that TV broadcast.